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Friday, 23 June 2017

Question Time, Indeed

If Theresa May did eventually manage her deal with the DUP, then would that party be on Question Time every week, no matter where it came from? That would be very great fun to watch.

What is commonly called fiscal conservatism simply does not exist in Northern Ireland, where there is hardly any private sector, and where all parties exist to ensure enormous levels of public spending.

The dispute is over who and where gets the money, not over whether anyone or anywhere should do so in the first place.

The same is true of Scotland.

And based on John Redwood's Commons call this week for an end to austerity, with a return to investment instead, it may very well now be true everywhere.

It certainly will be if Northern Ireland gets an extra two billion pounds, meaning an extra three billion for Wales and an extra eight or nine billion for Scotland.

I very much hope that both the DUP and, as is already the case, the SNP are indeed on every Question Time panel in that event.

All of this will be to buy 10 votes at least one of which, and possibly three, were obtained by the efforts of the Loyalist Communities Council, which is the common voice of the Ulster Defence Association, the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Red Hand Commando.

The one MP who certainly owes her position to that support was also endorsed by the Ulster Political Research Group, which is "close" to the UDA.

A Loyalist dynast, she even departs from the usual practice in such circles and hyphenates her maiden and married surnames, so that her election literature continues to feature the highly redolent name of her gun-running father.

She has just won her seat from the SDLP by a mere 1,996 votes.

By the end of next week, she could be in the Government of the United Kingdom in all but name.